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themselves. We don’t need call centres. We can put it on an app, so people don’t need to go into the GP surgery. The BBC, we can move to online broadcast, we don’t need terrestrial TV anymore.” Efficiency saves money, but the lack of digital inclusion woven in is the root cause of digital exclusion and extends well beyond shouting at a chatbot who can’t answer your questions. “What about Joan down the road, who is 72 and has never used a digital service in her life? What about Sarah in Great Yarmouth, who has four kids and is struggling to be able to provide food and heating? Now we’re going to say that she needs to buy an array of digital technology and become super skilled in using AI. It’s not a thought process that people go through when they look at the bottom line.” How bad is it? This is difficult to measure, and there is no clear consensus, but there are plenty of numbers out there. “There isn’t actually a single data set within the UK that can baseline Digital exclusion,” Anderson explained. “So, we have worked to on several different proxy measures, use ONS data and use Ofcom data to at least get a baseline from a couple of years ago. A big success for the digital inclusion sector was that this year, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology published a Digital Inclusion Action Plan, which was only intended a set of short-term tasks, but it’s a really good grounding and we know they’re working towards a longer- term strategy. It’s that kind of milestone that we have to use to measure success, because until we see questions about digital inclusion placed within the census, it’s difficult to gather the level of data we need.” In an earlier Long Read in 2023 we looked at the bewilderment experienced by journalist Pete Paphides’ elderly father who, unable to pay for parking to attend a friend’s funeral as he didn’t have a smartphone, experienced mounting confusion and panic as the fines mounted to £180, sadly outliving him, leaving his grieving family to pick up the pieces with an unhelpful local council and an assortment of chat bots. This is a long way from the sunlit uplands the Information Superhighway promised us twenty years ago.
The implications of millions left behind as we lean into a digital future are frightening and bleak, and while anecdotally we can probably all think of a situation similar to Pete’s father, as a society we are only now beginning to grasp the bigger picture. Myths of digital inclusion Anderson explained how multifaceted the issue is, requiring considerably more than just providing devices to those in need, and it extends well beyond older adults - to the hearing and visually impaired, disabled and those below the poverty line. “There are common myths: ‘Children are fine’, ‘Every child’s born with a smartphone’,” she said. “‘Every kid knows how to do anything digital’. ‘We know that because they go on TikTok, there we go, evidence’. No, it’s an absolutely massive myth. If you’ve never had access to a keyboarded device, how will you know how to use the keyboard? How will you know how to create a PowerPoint presentation? 40% of the children whom we surveyed as part of our work are digitally excluded children. They didn’t even know how to use Google.” The unintended consequences of excluding children from the rudiments of navigating the internet, at its most basic level, are alarming. Elizabeth continued. “It’s not taught within school, and everybody else goes on TikTok. So, if you want to find out some health information, you wouldn’t go to Google then find the NHS website, you’d go on TikTok and see what influencers are saying on the topic.” The implications of a twelve-year-old besieged by misinformation for this avoidable reason, and then imagining this happening at scale, are horrendous. “When you think about this in terms of media literacy, algorithms, critical thinking, preparing for life as an adult, it’s an incredibly complicated topic. It’s not as simple as just saying, if we could just get loads of laptops and give them out to people, digital exclusion is solved.” She added, “The Joseph Rowntree Foundation projections show that child poverty will rise, so we have to preserve offline alternatives because there will always be people who can’t afford it. There will also always be people who, for whatever reason, have additional needs and will probably struggle to use traditional forms of tech. But there will also be, and Older People’s Commissioner for Wales research proves this, there will
We championed your progress in Broadband Journal, but the reality for many was very different. “Although 1.5 million more people went online during the Covid-19 pandemic, in some groups - older, less affluent groups, including people with impairments and health conditions - digital engagement actually declined”, according to the Good Things Foundation, a charity dedicated to addressing digital exclusion in the UK. “The number of people without all the most basic ‘foundation’ digital skills is not improving. The digital divide may have narrowed in the past two years, but it has also deepened.” It’s all about progress isn’t it. In 2025 the world is starting to discover that late-stage capitalism, driven relentlessly by profit, doesn’t really allow for those who aren’t able to keep up. Elizabeth Anderson is CEO at the Digital Poverty Alliance, a UK based charity concerned with supplying reconditioned laptops and skills training to digitally excluded communities. “Every business is driven by the goal of creating efficiency for their organisation, which is frequently driven by digital transformation. So, bank branches close because we can do our banking online. Close the helpline because people can access a chatbot. Take away those human interface places, because it is far more efficient for people to be self-sufficient, to go online, sort it out “We have to preserve offline alternatives because there will always be people who can’t afford it.” Elizabeth Anderson, Digital Poverty Alliance’
Volume 47 No.4 DECEMBER 2025
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